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Public media is made possible by funding by Cuyahoga County residents through Cuyahoga Arts and Culture.

Coming up.

Nature calls, specifically the birds for a jazzy collab in Akron.

The.

Holiday bars, deck the halls across northeast Ohio.

And we look back at mid-century modern holiday shopping.

Hello, and welcome to applause.

Im Ideastream Public Medias Kabir Bhatia.

The stockings are hung, and I've brought some corn for popping.

But first, we take a trip to the National Center for Choreography in Akron.

It's the collision of dance, jazz and birding.

A creative project called Ava mansi, where these birds of a feather dance together.

Oh, white breasted nuthatch.

It's very cute.

I think that being outside and listening for something is really magical.

He got close to a very nosey.

They want to know what's going on.

I see.

Oh, there you.

So, looking at birds as an omen.

And as we look at bird populations declining.

It kind of is an omen.

So I feel like bringing, you know, this project to life, hopefully will kind of cause people to say, oh, that's not just something flying or moving around, like they have this poetic way of seeing and moving and being.

That's really magical for me.

We were camping in the Valley Overlook in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, and we were awakened by the sound of the wood thrush.

I, being birder, knew what this sound was coming from there.

Very beautiful, ethereal sounding bird.

And Chris, not necessarily a birder yet, but a fabulous musician, was inspired by the wood thrush.

So I would say that is his spark bird.

So a spark bird is a species that kind of gets you into birding, gets you excited about learning more about birds, getting out there and listening to or seeing birds in the wild after hearing the wood thrush.

It was just like, oh, I think I'm going to transcribe this.

So this is this is like another sample.

This is from the original wood brush recording that we made.

And I just put like a simple filter on and I think as I started like working on this and like learning like what the notes actually are and like some of the devices that the bird uses and things like that.

I presented this to a faculty member here, and we did a short little study on it.

And then Monika took it further and was like, well, maybe we should do an actual film and or try to lean towards creating a film with all types of multimedia things present being, you know, sculpture and dance music, spoken word.

Put all these things into one project.

Christopher said, I'm interested in transcribing birdsong, and I'm interested in finding dancers that might improvise the way that he does as a jazz musician.

That got me really excited because this year we happened to be working at NCAA.com with a mostly percussive dance artists who are both dancers and musicians, and this gave them a shared task to explore something together.

Souls of Duende is an all female percussive dance trio.

We have a guitar player, we have a percussionist, and we have a trumpet player, and we have three forms of dance.

We have tap dance.

We have got duck and we have flamenco, all from different places, but sharing the same stage at the same time, having conversations.

He said, hey.

Maybe.

It's me.

And it's song.

It has, you know, a few basic parts.

And while they may not have like, pattern that you would follow, things do repeat.

They do come back, just not in it, not in any systematic way.

So I think music is perfect for that because we can mimic all things through music.

I mean, we've been doing it every culture across many millennia.

Have tried to use sound to connect all things in life.

So I think it's a perfect medium for that.

So what I'm doing while they're dancing is gathering up ideas for a longer piece.

We're going to be working on a film that kind of shows the juxtaposition of the outdoor world where birds are free, and then our indoor cooler world where there's less of that natural sound.

Trying to plan and kind of contrast those.

Birds have been used in art for millennia.

I think it's a great way to bring people together.

And it's a great way to bring us out into nature.

It's just so nice to be in this short moment of collaboration with elements and talking about nature and what's here.

And because place matters, you know?

So not only are we learning about Akron through coming here in this choreographic center, but we're also learning about nature and what is surrounding the choreographic center and what what is housing the house that we're currently in, which is giving us more information about the music that, you know, gives us an ambiance of the energy of the space in which we cook.

Ava mansi is still in a fledgling state, with the goal to become a film and multimedia presentation.

Do you trim a tree this time of year?

Cleveland was once home to the largest live Christmas tree display.

It was indoors on Euclid Avenue.

I recently paid a visit to the former site for another edition of what it was.

No.

This building behind me, what it was was the Sterling Lindner Davis Company.

Now, that was a combination of several big department stores, all of which were right around this corner.

Starting in 1845.

Today, this building is mostly vacant, except for a few offices on the fifth floor.

There were six big department stores in downtown Cleveland, and during the holidays, they were dressed up like it was the North Pole, only colder.

Sterling Linder claimed to have the largest Christmas tree in the country.

For.

After World War Two, people began moving to the suburbs, and unfortunately, the store didn't follow them.

In 1968, it went out of business.

The following year, Mr.

Linda's granddaughter Linda married Paul McCartney.

But we haven't been able to find out anything about him or his Christmas decorations.

From the biggest live Christmas tree display to Mr.

Jingling and his magic keys.

Cleveland has a rich holiday shopping tradition idea stream documented that history in the show The Way We shopped, which I remember watching endlessly as a kid.

The holidays were a grand time to head downtown Cleveland.

Back in the day.

So let's take a sleigh ride down memory lane.

Did someone say something about shopping downtown at Christmas time?

Hey.

While shopping downtown was special.

Shopping downtown during the Christmas season was really special.

I just had this grand opulence to it that even as a kid, you appreciate at Christmas time, you come down and it's, It's a whole wonderland.

When you're a kid, everything seems bigger than life.

But even for adults, this next downtown memory was really big.

There was a store called Sterling Lindner Davis, which had a and as a child it looked like it was 300ft tall.

The most unbelievable Christmas tree in the lobby.

As a child, you really were in awe because it was huge.

Oh gosh, it was so high.

I don't know how to describe it.

If you would ask me today, I would say it was probably ten stories high.

Well, just unbelievable to see a tree that tall and that glittering and the size of those ornaments.

I always wondered how they got that darn thing in through those doors.

Yeah.

How did they get that thing in there?

In those days, stores would decorate for Christmas after Thanksgiving, following their turkey dinner.

The Sterling Lindner elves would unbolt the front doors of the store and wait for the Green monster to arrive.

They usually brought the tree in on the Saturday after, Thanksgiving.

After the store closed, probably at 530 or 6:00.

They closed off Euclid Avenue, and a big truck came in with the tree on a flatbed, and they took the front doors off and brought the tree in and set it up overnight.

And then on Sunday, which the department stores were not open on Sunday, the crew came in and decorated it.

As far as I know.

Most of the men that pulled it in and some of their sons, like me, were just volunteers.

It seemed like it took forever, but it was probably only 15 minutes, but it had to be pulled in by hand.

It was on a daily, and they pulled it in and in the middle of the store, there was a staircase that went down to the basement.

So they had to kind of go along the side of that and bring it around.

And we only stayed basically until the tree was set and they started to pull it up.

Of course, the ornaments were to scale.

I mean, they had ornaments the size of three bowling balls, you know, it was unbelievable.

That's no lie.

Pat Borris and her husband worked at Sterling Linder and were given boxes of the ornaments when the store closed.

This is one of the many ornaments that hung on the tree and they're very heavy.

They're blown glass.

This one is made in Austria and the little tag is still on it.

25 2500 ornaments on the tree and tinsel and icicles.

And then, the metal bells.

I say that I used to work at Sterling Lindner.

The first thing they say is, oh, I remember the Christmas tree.

And that was really what they were known for was the beautiful Christmas tree, sort of like the Rockefeller tree in Rockefeller Plaza.

Cleveland's downtown.

Had the look and feel.

It was so right that when it came time for Hollywood to make a Christmas classic, they came to Cleveland.

Turning back the clock to a simpler time was A Christmas Story, set in the 1940s and shot in Cleveland.

Because of the historic look of its neighborhoods, stores and downtown.

That movie really reflected, I think, when you when you look at that, what downtown was all about.

It had this sense of you had to be there to understand that you had to hear the bells.

You had to see the lights.

You had to see the mechanical windows.

You had to see the hustle and bustle and the people loaded with packages.

It's a it's a it's a an environment that you absolutely cannot capture in a mall.

When I watch Christmas Story, you have fond memories of what downtown used to be like and the memories.

The stores display windows created a lot of those memories.

All the stores had animated windows, wonderful windows that were fabulous not only for children.

I say they were for children of every age.

But you wanted to be part of that, and you felt like you were missing something if you didn't go downtown, no matter how cold it was, it was never too cold to just stand there and almost and put the nose on the window.

And, it was truly a fairyland.

Every single window had something in it, that was animated.

It would be little figurines singing.

They might be elves in a workshop.

I can't remember exactly what the each one was, but for a child, it was Alice in Wonderland.

If you were a kid or even a parent, things like the Twig, Twiggy Shop, Sterling Lindner Tree and window displays were just to whet your appetite before you had an audience with the Jolly elf and the red suit.

And for many people, even Santa had to take a back seat to a Cleveland original.

The keeper of the keys.

It was the only place you could go to see two things one, the real Santa Claus, because only the real Santa Claus would be downtown.

And see Mr.

Jingling because there was only one Mr.

Jingling.

Anywhere.

Anywhere.

Period.

Hi, boys and girls.

I Mr.

Jingling, and I'm so glad to be back here with you on television.

Did you have a nice Thanksgiving Day yesterday and had some turkey or something?

Just.

It doesn't matter, though, as long as you got together with people you loved and celebrated.

So what was the story on Mr.

Jingling and how did he get this job as Santas Keeper of the keys?

I work for Santa Claus and I'm a locksmith.

And I make keys and wind up things for the toys.

And it's a job I've enjoyed very, very much ever since the time.

Well, long time ago, when Santa Claus lost his key to the toy warehouse where we keep all the toys just before we put him on the sleigh for Christmas.

Well, I made him a key fit.

That door we got in there, got those toys and got them delivered to Santa.

Was so happy and so nice.

But he made me his keeper of the keys.

Mr.

jingling, how are you?

Keeper of the keys on the seventh floor.

We'll be looking for you to turn the key for we have a date underneath there.

That's just three.

They all tell Mr.

Tingling about.

Oh, we got your keys.

And they have the little leaves like sayings about them and, reminding.

And they say one more thing.

They open.

And I just.

That's all there.

What else there?

The keys to your heart.

I think they're a symbol of Christmas.

The favorite part?

It's the smiles and the eyes for boys and girls and, that's, Pretty good.

Two way street, I get it.

I get the love from them.

We did.

Then, and, I can see it in their eyes.

And that's about as good a thing as you get.

It was better than presents in the gifts.

I think I'm Mr.

Jingling.

Award for real?

Is it for our good?

How is seven seventh?

We'll be looking for you to turn the key.

Let's keep the festivities rolling with a holiday pop up tour across Northeast Ohio.

Idea streams.

Jay Nungesser once visited a trio of watering holes where Santa is known to park his sleigh.

establishments across Northeast Ohio transform into holiday wonderlands as part of a growing trend of holiday pop up bars featuring colorful drinks, food, and even nonalcoholic options.

We'll visit three such festive locations, sure to get any Grinch into the holiday spirit in the crowded alley on East fourth Street in downtown Cleveland normally lies the Society Lounge, a speakeasy type cocktail lounge, except for during the holidays when it transforms into a holiday menagerie of twinkling lights and Christmas cocktails.

Hi, I'm Cassandra Holloway, I am the GM and operator of Society Lounge in downtown Cleveland.

Society lounge has been around for ten years now, so we started off as an easy style classic cocktail bar, and we've grown ever since then.

Right now we are the pop up miracle bar.

In 2018, the Society Lounge jumped on the trend of turning their lower level lounge into a holiday wonderland every year since the amount of holiday themed decor grows.

So whether it's been in somebody's basement for that year, they bring it back out.

We go through it, we're like, we can still use this.

Let's buy more stuff from here.

People get really excited about the holidays.

They want to be embraced in this like cheery, merry and bright and elves and Santa and oh, dreidel, dreidel.

And you know, everybody wants to have festive.

Plus, we have this beautiful glassware.

You're drinking out of a unicorn, you're drinking out of a T-Rex mug, and you're like, this is great.

I'm a kid.

What with alcohol.

This is awesome.

This is really, really fun.

I have actually never been to the society lounge.

It's irregular, but I've now been here twice because I love the festivity of all the.

Now we take a trip south into Summit County, into the New England style Christmas postcard of Hudson amidst the Yuletide greetings and strands of Garland with red festive bows, lights Hudson's hair.

Blitzen this time of year, with its window displays featuring the Grinch in one window and Ralphie donning his pink bunny suit and Red Ryder Bebe gun from A Christmas Story.

In the other, Blitzen attracts visitors from all over the region this time of year.

My name is JJ Altomare.

I'm a chef and partner with Hudson's Restaurant Catering and Blitzen.

This holiday pop up bars.

Hudson's restaurant.

We opened October 3rd of 2006.

It's my brother, my father and I, our partners, we've grown up in the industry and decided to finally open our own restaurant after working in the industry for a number of years.

Altomare says that along with his brother, they always watched industry trends and saw the holiday pop up.

Bar trends start to percolate about seven years ago, wondering if they should do the same here in Hudson.

Altomare was able to convince his brother to give the concept a try, and we literally just started rummaging through old Christmas decorations, and we wanted we wanted it to make it look like Christmas was literally everywhere in the entire place.

So we're always trying to, you know, spread cheer as much as possible.

The city, the regulars, they work, we experience long wait times because we have people driving over an hour away to come have dinner and experience Blitzen with us.

Oh, I love it.

I have to go and see everything.

I just wonder where they store it all.

It's a fun, fun location for those looking to steer clear of alcohol or just looking for an alternative, but still wanting that holiday esthetic.

Willoughby, east of Cleveland may have what you're looking for.

Culver soul offers a bright winter themed experience and drinks that will get you in the holiday spirit without the possibility of a hangover.

In the morning.

I'm going to Cronk, owner of Cava Soul.

I'm Matthew Butler, also owner of The Soul.

A Cava bar is a nonalcoholic bar offering botanical drinks.

That are plant based to give you a feeling kind of like alcohol without the negative repercussions.

We at our cava bars serve cava and kratom tea, as well as a few other botanical based, drinks.

We have cacao.

We have CBD, that type of thing.

Kruk says the cava concept is not only for the drinks, but also for the atmosphere.

We aim to create a community where people can come, enjoy themselves in a setting like a bar, without the pressure to drink alcohol.

And we wanted to give those people that don't drink the same opportunity to feel cozy and festive.

And we went with a winter wonderland theme as to not segregate any particular, tradition during this time of year and just celebrate the sparkly, snowy time of year, and give people a place to come and hang out.

So whether it's miracle on Fourth Street, Blitzen Cava, soul, or one of the many other numerous holiday pop up bars in Northeast Ohio, there's always an option to relax and sip a glass of something festive.

All three of these holiday pop ups are in full swing, but Cleveland Society Lounge has a sparkly new look for the 2025 season.

Look out!

The trolleys are coming down the track on the next round of applause.

If you've never hitched a ride on a streetcar, we're saving you a seat at a Medina County Museum.

We all are dedicated to preserving this history and sharing it.

We also made a jogger.

County family.

That's all aboard the pastime of model train collecting and blues.

Man walking.

Kane cooks up a little traveling music.

All that and more on the next round of applause.

I hope everyone has a joyous holiday season, and we thank you for being the gift that keeps on giving with your support of applause.

Im Ideastream Public Medias Kabir Bhatia and I'm going to send you on your merry way with a lovely British carol performed by our early music friends, Lady Elise.

Also keep an eye out for the festive decor.

The decks, the hall of Stan Hewitt Hall and Gardens.

Holly.

And be with you when they are blue.

For love.

All the trees that are in the world.

Holly was the crown, the rising of Gotham.

And the running of.

For to the queen of the Mary.

Walking sweet singing in the poor.

Holly beside blossom.

As white as before.

And many more sweet Jesus Christ would be your sweet Savior on every she could leave you the.

Holly has what Berry has made us and him and many more sweet Jesus Christ fought for tossing us good and wise and never for.

I'm up running for dear.

Walking up and ready for your sweet singing.

Good.

Holly.

This was pretty cool.

Showed us that before I put my sweet to Jesus Christ on Christmas Day.

Mom on modernizing on the snow in the morning and more to the mother in all of whom when you put something on.

You.

You.

Made.

You.

You.

Press on.

Broke us between us and it.

You and Mary.

Sweet Jesus Christ, redeem us all good.

Rising up from the goodness.

Oh, dear mother of God.

Production of applause and ideastream.

Public media is made possible by funding by Cuyahoga County residents through Cuyahoga Arts and Culture.